rc-martin

Today's body mod is the transition between the bulkhead and body, the straight down body line just doesn't fit with swoopy body work so I made a couple of inserts from 2mm styrene to add a curved transition

One thing that just didn't look right to me was the long 'snoot' at the front. I don't need the extra length here as the SRB front suspension is about 15mm further back. Guess what? Dremel time!!! 😂😂 I also removed the part on the inner wheel arch that used to be the mounting point for the original Sand Rover light pods

Now I don't know why I have never seen this before but a couple of weeks ago I came across a picture of a beach buggy. Turns out it was driven by Steve McQueen in the 1960s version of The Thomas Crown Affair. I just love those headlights! So out came the Dremel.... again. I designed a light pod and 3d printed a couple of them.

Other Sand Rover conversions I'd seen used a cut down SRB rear roll bar hoop bit I really didn't want to chop up any of my original ones, I could have got a re-release one but instead I went a different route. I had Ford Ranger Rear roll hoop which are a lot shorter, so I fitted this and then used the original Sand Scorcher rear body clip to fasten to the Ford Ranger hoop. It sticks up a little but I can live with that as it's easily accessible and uses original parts. I have an original Super Champ front servo saver fitted and used a cut down plastic body post extension over the top of the original SC post. Battery placement was going to be in the original position but I found it would be a pain to remove easily with all the wiring for the animation servos in the way so have decided to use a shorty lipo mounted on it's side just in front of the roll bar hoop, it fits really nicely here and with a couple of notches out of the rear of the underbody fits in snuggly. With the battery mounted sideways it stopped the main body from sitting on the chassis so again out came the Dremel and a suitable hole was relieved for the battery to poke through. I then made a cardboard template and transfered this to some styrene sheet to make a cover for the new battery position.

To animate the driver I made him a separate cockpit that has all the servos attached and can be removed from the chassis if any work is need on it, again 2mm styrene sheet was used to construct. A servo for the steering wheel, one for the accelerator pedal and one for the gear shift where installed and The Undertaker suitably placed in his new seat. Trish lost her legs for the moment and received a tiny 1.7 gram servo in her back for her arm and another servo to enable her upper body to turn

I needed some seats now for Trish and The Undertaker, I was going to go for some scale bucket seats from Killerbody but didn't think they suit the beach buggy look, then realised I had two perfectly good seats from the section I removed from the body, they needed a bit of filling as they have a raised section that needed removing.

I spent ages searching for suitable figures that where sufficiently articulated, the right scale and looked like they would belong in a beach buggy. Finally decided 7 1/2 inch action figures where approximately 1/10 scale and that WWE wrestling figures where going to be the best option, just need ones now that would look good in a beach buggy. Decided on a Undertaker figure and Trish Stratus as the passenger. The Undertaker arrived first and I didn't hesitate at getting stuck into him Sub micro servo added into his body for his head movement and freed off his shoulder and hip joints for looser movement

I was going to use an old Sand Rover chassis tub under the body, attached to the SRB chassis like a few other people have done but after watch a few of Danny Huyhn Creation videos I thought I'd have a go at custom making a tub from 2mm black styrene. Made a cardboard template first of the base and then just built up from there

Thought I'd start a new build thread for my latest project. I've entered in the 2022 Iconic RC revival with my trusty Sand Scorcher but thought I'd try something different body wise this year. I'd seen a few people mount Sand Rover bodies to SRB chassis in the past but wanted to go a little further and add a couple of figures with some animatronic actions also. New, reproduction Sand Rover shell was acquired and got stuck straight in with chopping out the original interior panel with the dremel tool.

Just ordered a kit through Fusion hobbies, wish i'd seen this first

He waves with the other hand 😁

Some more of the mishmash FAV. Kyosho Scorpion front suspension now fitted and rear suspension mounts now incorporated into the GRP chassis plate

Some astro turf i found, so stuck it to his helmet as a mohican

After looking at and racing against all the Kyoshos at Revival 2021 I thought that the quality of the Kyosho components was fantastic and thought I needed some of that bling in my life. The Scorpion and Tomahawk both use front and rear trailing arms, same as the FAV so it stands to reason that without too much hassle that it would fit the FAV and for about the price of a new car I bought all the suspension components for a Scorpion With a bit of head scratching and a couple of false starts I got the rear arms fitted using a 3d printed sandwich block and a carbon fibre strap, the block mounts to the original chassis without modifications so that was a bonus.

We've all had problems with SRB front hubs popping out of their joints, so i made up some new front arms to use 5mm ball ends, 3d printed in carbon PLA. I later changed the front upright as well back to the standard FAV nylon type

Thought it was time to update, I ran the FAV at last years Revival and it went pretty well, finished as the fastest Tamiya car in the year group which was full of Kyosho Scorpions and Tomahawks. Here are some snaps from the event

A bit more progress on the FAV. Gearbox built up with MIP super ball diff and Frog UJ's Wing mounts fabricated and Kyosho Scorpion Scorpion wing mounted Kyosho Turbo Scorpion wheels because they look sooo cool 😎

With the SRB front suspension sorted it was time to address the rear end. I decided to go the Frog gearbox route like I've seen a few times but instead of using the Frog alloy side plates I was going to make my own using the same GRP as I'd used for the chassis. Another plus of using the Frog gearbox is that I can then use the MIP super ball diff. I cut the excess off the Frog gearbox case and made the plates so I could use the standard FAV mounts. I also got some Frog universal joints to finish the drive train off.

On the top side I've fitted a Super Champ servo saver and a battery holder from a RC10 as the battery is going to fit longways to aid chassis balance. Also drilled and tapped the front hubs to accept 5mm ball connectors instead of the small 4mm ones

Sketched out the chassis dimensions and drew it up in Fusion360 and then used our CNC mini router at work to cut the plate out of 2mm G10 GRP

Got some fancy carbon tube that is a direct replacement for the standard alloy tubes, widened by about 25mm than a standard SRB

Always loved the look of the FAV and Wild One, they're good buggies but they're not great buggies. I'm trying to improve the driving experience of the FAV without spoiling any of it's charm. Suspension wise the front is rubbish, just springs, I could use Wild One front shock towers but the overall look of the front suspension looks chunky. If only there was a better scale looking option..... SRB? Widened to fit the wider track of the FAV? Mounted on a GRP chassis? Could use a Super Champ servo saver and have equal length track rods? Had a bit of a think and then hacked my old Wild One chassis up with the dremel and mocked up a cardboard template of what I imagined a GRP chassis would involve.

They're Tamiya, same as fitted to Dark Impact but in white

Some latest pics.

Some latest pics.